People / Faculty
Susan Hockfield, Ph.D.
Professor of Neuroscience
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Building: 3-207
Email: hockfield@mit.edu
My laboratory has studied molecular substrates of mammalian development. We identified a family of glycovariants of the extracellular matrix (ECM) proteoglycan, aggrecan, whose expression is regulated by neuronal activity early in an animal's life. Expression of the aggrecan glycoforms is regulated in parallel with critical period events and may play a role in stabilizing mature synaptic relationships. A related ECM protein, BEHAB/brevican, is expressed when glial cells travel during development and after brain injury. BEHAB/brevican is also expressed at very high levels in brain tumors, and can mediate the motility of tumor cells. A key feature of our work has been to bring biochemical and molecular biological techniques to the classical anatomical analysis of mammalian CNS development.
Hockfield S. The next innovation revolution. Science. 2009 Feb
27;323(5918):1147.
Viapiano MS, Hockfield S, Matthews RT. BEHAB/brevican requires ADAMTS-mediated proteolytic cleavage to promote glioma invasion. J Neurooncol. 2008
Jul;88(3):261-72. Epub 2008 Apr 9.
Viapiano MS, Bi WL, Piepmeier J, Hockfield S, Matthews RT. Novel
tumor-specific isoforms of BEHAB/brevican identified in human malignant gliomas.
Cancer Res. 2005 Aug 1;65(15):6726-33.
Viapiano MS, Matthews RT, Hockfield S. A novel membrane-associated
glycovariant of BEHAB/brevican is up-regulated during rat brain development and
in a rat model of invasive glioma. J Biol Chem. 2003 Aug 29;278(35):33239-47.
Epub 2003 Jun 10.
